


fish of the day

by mimizans



Category: The Avengers (2012)
Genre: Gen, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-06-03
Updated: 2012-06-03
Packaged: 2017-11-06 18:28:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,160
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/421887
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mimizans/pseuds/mimizans
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>14 hours at Avengers Tower.</p>
            </blockquote>





	fish of the day

**Author's Note:**

> mostly gen with some slight tony/pepper & clint/natasha, but you can basically read any pairing you want if you've got your goggles on 0:)

_Tuesday, May 15, 2012.  
New York City, New York County, New York State.  
Stark Tower, Midtown Manhattan._

_7:32 a.m._

Natasha Romanova watches Steve Rogers hit a steel-reinforced punching bag so hard that it explodes against the gym wall. He blushes and stammers an apology, but she frowns and says that she’s seen better.

Natasha pushes another bag towards him and gives him tips on how to hit it even harder than the last one. Her goal, she says, is to test how strong Tony Stark had these walls built. She really wants him to have to call in a contracter. Maybe do some foundation work.

Steve thinks that she is the strangest, best woman he has ever met.

_8:44 a.m._

The god of thunder cannot work the microwave. Clint Barton watches with ill-contained amusement as Thor gestures wildly at it with his hammer, threatening all the vengeance of the Odinson on the small white beast if it does not cook his Jimmy Dean breakfast sandwich.

Clint stops poking at his cold eggs and takes pity on Thor. When he punches in the numbers and presses the start button, Thor’s face lights up. Clint’s a strong guy, but the hand Thor brings down on his shoulder nearly sends him to his knees. Clint smiles anyway, and they spend the rest of the morning watching The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.

_10:40 a.m._

Tony Stark stumbles out of bed and right into Pepper Potts. She drops the pearl earring she’d been trying to take off, and they knock heads when they both bend down to get it. He mumbles out an apology and puts his hand on her back, leaning into her neck.

He wonders where she was this morning, then remembers that she had a meeting, some board of trustees thing. She rocked it, he’s sure - slid in on Ferragamos and told everyone what was what. He gets to be a superhero, but she runs the world. 

He breathes wetly against her throat because he knows she thinks it’s gross. She grimaces and pulls away from him, reaching for her other pearl earring.

_12:33 p.m._

Bruce Banner sits atop the roof of Stark Tower and breathes deeply. He listens to the distant street noise, the wind whipping past his head, and the stir of electric current from every particle around him - and lets it fall away.

Silence is profound this high in sky, and Bruce can feel his energies aligning. His roommate, a constantly undulating pool of anger under the surface, stays quiet and still. For once. He must be able to feel the calm too, Bruce thinks. 

A jet flies overhead. A pigeon lands next to him. Bruce remembers. But he doesn’t flinch.

_1:14 p.m._

Thor hits the mat hard and lets out a booming laugh. It’s not often that someone can defeat him, but Steve is giving it his best shot. Thor appreciates that. 

Steve grins and puts out a hand to help Thor up, all smiles and genuine courtesy. Thor responds by kicking Steve’s feet out from under him. Steve grunts when he hits the ground. 

He turns to Thor from where he’s now sprawled on the ground. He looks puzzled, but when Thor laughs again, easily, like he does everything, Steve smiles back. A bark of laughter escapes Steve’s lips, and soon they are both shaking with mirth.

Bruce walks in, takes one look at them, and proclaims that he doesn’t want to know.

_2:47 p.m._

Natasha’s cat-eye sunglasses make her look like Marilyn Monroe. Clint rests his arms on the edge of the pool and tells her so. She laughs and flicks water in his face. He’d rather not know whether she’s laughing at him for his bourgeois Western pop culture reference or because he’s the biggest sucker of all time.

The sun is bringing out the copper in Natasha’s hair, so Clint lies down on the deck beside her. She turns to him and smiles, her cheeks red from the heat. He reaches out to take her hand, and she threads their fingers together.

_5:03 p.m._

Bruce is standing in front of the biggest set of touch screens he has ever seen, and he’s been on the SHIELD helicarrier, so that’s saying something. 

Tony Stark’s lab is bright, aglow with unflattering fluorescents. The screens in front of Bruce are all lit up, red, green and blue, the graphs and tables constantly rearranging and adjusting. The simulations and equations running calculate the answers to questions that no one but Tony Stark would ever think to ask, and that makes Bruce smile.

Tony claps Bruce on the back and tells him to make himself to home, but to try not to freak out at all the awesome and hulk the place up. Bruce shakes his head and laughs from the bottom of his stomach.

_6:59 p.m._

Natasha reads quietly, just like she does everything else. Bruce hasn’t heard the flutter of a turning page, but she’s almost halfway through _The Brothers Karamazov_. 

Personally, Bruce can’t stand Dostoevsky, and he tells Natasha so when she takes a break from reading to sip on a cup of tea. Bruce is all for existentialism. After all, he tells her, he has firsthand experience attesting to the fact that the world is a cruel and random place. He’s read _The Myth of Sisyphus_ too many times to count; there’s a hopefulness to Camus’ writing, he tells Natasha. Camus accepts the absurd, but looks for happiness in that acceptance. Dostoevsky never seems to have any hope, though, and Bruce could use a little of that.

Natasha looks at him for a long moment. Then she closes her book and tells him a joke involving Dostoevsky, a stolen police car, and a donut shop in Jersey. 

_8:11 p.m._

Tony passes Natasha in the hallway on his way back to the lab after dinner.

He gives her a mock salute, and she gives him a kick in the shin.

_9:16 p.m._

Steve is sketching at the kitchen table. He’s drawing a woman that he saw in Central Park. She had short blonde hair and a long green dress, but all Steve has is white paper and a gray pencil. 

He looks up when he hears Tony enter the room. He can always tell it’s Tony because of the peculiar way his too-long sweatpants shuffle on the tile floor. Tony has a green drink in one hand and a pack of cards in the other. He looks tired and worn, but he also looks happy. Like he’s where he wants to be.

Tony asks if Steve would like to play a few hands. He holds out the battered deck like an offering, the ace of hearts peeking out from under his thumb.

Steve puts down his pencil, closes his sketchbook, and takes the cards from Tony.


End file.
